Hope and Despair (希望と絶望 Kibō to Zetsubō) is the 272nd chapter of manga, Baby Steps.
Characters in Order of Appearance[]
- Eiichiro Maruo
- Hisashi Kanda
- Alex O'Brien
- Krishna Ramesh
- Pete Gonzales
- Atsushi Taira
- Kevin Morland
- Soji Ike
- Ronnie Medberry
Summary[]
Eiichiro competes against Pete Gonzales and experiences the warm-up menu prepared by Coach Ronnie for Ike's training.
Synopsis[]
Ei-chan finishes delivering the baskets of tennis balls to the various courts and feels a bit dizzy, which he attributes to exhaustion from the eye training. Kanda sees him and asks if he's considering getting a job at the academy since Kanda thought Ei-chan wanted to become a pro. Ei-chan says his decision is dependent on the All-Japan Championship. Ei-chan asks if Kanda has decided to turn pro. Kanda says he is, that it's nothing to hesitate about (unlike Ei-chan), then snarks that Ei-chan's lucky he can take part in the All-Japan (implying Ei-chan wouldn't be in position to decide on turning pro, otherwise).
The snark creates tension between them, and then this tall guy butts in and says they mustn't quarrel, that he doesn't understand what was said but the atmosphere is obvious. The tall guy turns out to be Pete Gonzales. Atsushi, Coach Kevin, and some other guys including Alex and Krishna arrive for the practice session. Kevin says since there are new members, they'll have one-set games after warm-up exercises.
Atsushi explains that the class is composed of pros and those about to turn pro, so it's an elite class. But because there are so many people, the results of the games will be used to divide the class into 2 groups: first string and second string. The first string will be overseen by Kevin, who's a famous coach of juniors. The elites are pros who are 19 and below and have a world ranking of 500 and below, and national or international top juniors. Atsushi says that with Alex's results, he'll soon enter the Top 500. (Ei-chan thinks this is similar to Takuma's ranking.) Krishna, on the other hand, is among the world's top 10 juniors and plans to go to Japan to take part in the Super Juniors. Aside from Kanda, everyone else is expected to become top juniors in America. And there's Pete, who played baseball in middle school, then shifted to tennis in high school. Within 3 years, he'd reached the finals of the US Open Juniors
Ei-chan goes up against Pete for the game. Ei-chan notices Pete has a fast serve, fast reflexes, that Pete might look easygoing but he doesn't waste his energy. Naturally, Eichan loses 6-2, but Kevin notes that Ei-chan has progressed a lot in the time he's been gone. Ei-chan thinks that in the 2 months he's there, he has to be able to defeat Pete— otherwise, he can't become a pro—and not just Pete but all the others present. He's elated and looking forward to seeing how far he can go in the 2 months.
Krishna notes that Ei-chan lost but as expected he looks like he's enjoying himself. Alex suggests getting Ei-chan to show them his notes. Pete asks, "Notes?" Kanda thinks Eichan is a disgusting guy.
The next day Ei-chan's having lunch with Ike and enthusing over the rightness of his decision to come to the academy because there are lots of high-level players around. Ike notes Ei-chan really likes training. Anyhow, Ike stands up to go ahead but asks Eichan to help out in his afternoon practice. Ei-chan says he'll come along since he wants to thank Coach Ronnie for his advice. They get to Ike's destination and the coach tells Ike to warm up: a 400-meter dash immediately followed by a 400-meter jog back to the starting line, to be done 10 times without any break, apparently to get him accustomed to performing in an oxygen-deprived state. The coach is shouting things like "If you want to fight to the bitter end until the second week of the Grand Slam, you have to build a body that won't accumulate fatigue!" and "The final set of the seventh match of five-set matches is when you have to move your best! If you understand that, don't slack off!"
Ei-chan hears and sees all these and realizes he has to change something in his thinking, since he's just elated to be there and pitting himself against strong players: basically, this is no time for him to be elated.